KETK-TV

Construction

In 1984, the Tyler–Longview area gained its second network affiliate, CBS outlet KLMG-TV. As that occurred, the battle was on to build a third network-affiliated station to bring NBC to East Texas. The first contender was Sunrise Broadcasting, which applied in 1980 and merged with a competing applicant for channel 14 in December 1982;[1] East Texas Broadcasting, which was building another station, KTET (channel 60), was described as doing "too much, too soon" with no agreement in hand with the network: it went as far as hiring a news department before it was foreclosed on.[3]

However, as other groups sought the NBC nod, it was held the entire time by another permittee: Thomas Robert Gilchrist, who won a construction permit in early 1985 for KTRG (using his initials).[4] Gilchrist went bankrupt, and the construction permit and NBC affiliation agreement were sold to Texas American Broadcasting, in which two of the three partners were owners of KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma.[5] Texas American proceeded to change the call letters to KETK and begin construction.[6] Even before channel 56 was on the air, TAB was operating a low-power station providing NBC programming to the Jacksonville area.[7]

KETK was originally planned to start in February, but equipment delays and high winds led it to be pushed back.[8] Even with the delays, a tragedy occurred in the final stretch of construction when a crew repairing damage to the studio-transmitter link tower at the studios in Jacksonville from cold weather suffered an equipment accident, causing one man's death.[9] It finally signed on March 9, 1987.[10] KETK-TV joined KXAS-TV of Fort Worth on the Tyler cable system, though it did not invoke network non-duplication requiring the cable company in Tyler to make KETK the only source of NBC programming.[11] The station made steady inroads in audience share in its early months on air.[12] A tornado damaged the offices near Jacksonville in November 1987; the station was on the air the next day.[13][14] Texas American Broadcasting sold the station to Region 56 Network, a subsidiary of Lone Star Broadcasting, in 1989; Region 56 was co-owned by the general manager, Phil Hurley, and TDH Capital Corporation.[15]

Channel 19 in Nacogdoches

In September 1991, KETK launched a satellite station, KLSB-TV (channel 19), in Nacogdoches. It had its own studios in Nacogdoches, employing 40 people and producing separate evening newscasts.[16][17] The launch of the Nacogdoches station led to changes in the regional composition of channel 56's newscasts. There were plans to split the news anchors between Tyler and Longview,[18] but instead it was decided to not have a local anchor in Longview. KETK relocated its studios to a site in Tyler on Loop 323 in December 1991.[19] In January 1994, separate Nacogdoches newscasts were discontinued, resulting in a net loss of about nine jobs with a continuing presence there.[20]

Max Media (a successor in name only to the previous Max Media, which had owned KETK-TV in the late 1990s) acquired KLSB from KLSB Television LLC, a company which had leased its air time to KETK-TV, in 2003. It announced it would move its transmitter to cover Tyler and Longview and become the region's first CBS affiliate in more than a decade.[21] This occurred in April 2004, when it became KYTX.[22]

Max Media, Sinclair, and ComCorp ownership

Max Media Properties acquired KETK and KLSB for $17.1 million in 1996, a transaction made by Lone Star Broadcasting in order to pay out the private capital funds that had invested in the company.[23] The sale was completed in March 1997;[24] that December, Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired Max Media in a deal announced at the end of 1997,[25] but it opted to sell KETK–KLSB. At the time, the only other Texas station owned by Sinclair was KABB in San Antonio, and it was geographically isolated from its other holdings.[26] As a result, in January 1999, Sinclair sold the stations' non-license assets to Communications Corporation of America (ComCorp) for $36 million plus a $2 million option to later outright acquire the license assets; ComCorp owned other stations in Texas and Louisiana, including two other NBC affiliates. Hurley then left the station at the start of 2001 to become the president of Max Media's television stations.[27]

ComCorp acquired the license assets of KETK-TV on December 29, 2004.[28] In June 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[29] Simultaneously, White Knight Broadcasting, a related company that owned KFXK, filed for bankruptcy protection; by that time, the stations represented a virtual duopoly.[30] A majority stake in White Knight was purchased by Anthony Malara in 2007.[31]

Sale to Nexstar

On April 24, 2013, ComCorp announced the sale of its television stations, including KETK-TV, to Nexstar Broadcasting Group. KFXK and KTPN-LD were to be sold to Nexstar partner company Mission Broadcasting, primarily because an outright KETK–KFXK duopoly would not be legal. In August 2014, with the sale languishing, Mission withdrew its application, with White Knight continuing to own KFXK.[32] The ComCorp sale was completed on January 1, 2015.[33] Nexstar completed a $4 million renovation of KETK's studio and office facilities in November 2017.[35]

Nexstar acquired KYTX owner Tegna in a deal announced in August 2025[36] and completed on March 19, 2026.[37][38] A temporary restraining order issued one week later by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, later escalated to a preliminary injunction, has prevented KYTX from being integrated into KETK and KFXK.[39][40]

Notable former on-air staff

• Richelle Carey — morning news anchor, later at CNN Headline News[52]
• Jonna Fitzgerald — news anchor, community relations director (1999–2005)[53]

Subchannels

KETK-TV's transmitter is located near FM 855 in northwestern Cherokee County. Its signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

When the digital television transition date was delayed from February to June 2009, KETK-TV intended to follow suit,[55] but a major equipment failure led to the analog transmitter being permanently switched off on March 27, 2009.[56] KETK-TV continued to broadcast in digital on channel 22, using virtual channel 56.[57]